[nopardons]

I was given you some simple reference points and know what the VON and VAN mean. It's the same thing as the de, d' etc. in French and Italian; except that German, it also can connote a member of the aristocracy.

More examples: Van Cortland ( a once great Park and area in upper Manhattan ), Van Dijik ( which in NYC became Van Dyke as in an expressway ), and Van Vleit ( middle name of an idiot NYC mayor in the '60s ); all of which are "soft" sounding names.

But now the "named" perp isn't the "perp", so this is all now really off topic.

[nopardons]

given =giving

[the OlLine Rebel]

Van Cortlandt, another RevWar name. IMO all of those names are “hard”, not soft. ;-)

But again, we digress and have hijacked the thread...